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Monday, January 26, 2015

Vatican City, 24 January 2015 (VIS) –
This morning Pope Francis received in audience the participants in
the international congress commemorating the tenth anniversary of the
publication of the Instruction “Dignitas connubii”. The symposium
was organised by the faculty of canon law of the Pontifical Gregorian
University, Rome, and with the patronage of the Pontifical Council
for Legislative Texts and the “Consociatio internationalis studio
iuris canonici promovendo”.

The Pope declared that the extensive
participation in this meeting indicates the importance of the
Instruction “Dignitas connubii”, “which is not directed
principally to jurists but rather to those who work in local
tribunals, and noted that “experience teaches us that he who knows
the path to follow travels more rapidly. The knowledge of and
familiarity with this Instruction may in the future also help
ministers of the courts to streamline proceedings, often perceived by
married couples as long and tiresome. The resources that this
Instruction makes available for rapid proceedings, free of any
formalism, have not yet been fully explored; similarly, the
possibility of future legislation intended for the same purpose
cannot be excluded”.

Finally, he commented on the importance
of the contribution of the defender of the bond in cases of marriage
annulment, specifying that “his presence and the faithful
fulfilment of his task does not condition the judge, but rather
allows and promotes the impartiality of his judgement by setting
before him the arguments for and against annulment”.